


Only Love Could Ever Hit This Hard

by ActualHurry



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-16 03:27:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18512968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualHurry/pseuds/ActualHurry
Summary: A series of moments between Shinobu and Nadiya.





	Only Love Could Ever Hit This Hard

**Author's Note:**

> I would've liked to make this longer, but I just itched to put something out there. SO EXPECT MORE. EVENTUALLY.

“Tell me about me,” Shinobu asked.

“You have your journal for that,” Nadiya told her, as she had told her a dozen times.

Nadiya knew that the other woman didn’t mean to be cruel, but the fact of the matter was simple. This was not her dead love become undead. It was a Risen wearing a dead woman’s face and using a dead woman’s name. This new Guardian in their fold was no salve for Nadiya’s ache. She wasn’t even a shadow of the woman the corpse belonged to.

“I have the chance to know,” Shinobu insisted. “Not everyone does!”

“No one ever does.”

Ignoring her, Shinobu scanned over the writing in her journal. Nadiya was struck by the reminder of her bullheadedness, and then she soured again.

“There’s a lot in here about you,” Shinobu said. “I _am_ sorry I don’t remember you, but I –”

“But _what?_ ” Nadiya snapped. She barely resisted shooting the nearest tree trunk until her heart and the tree sported matching holes. “But _what_ , Shinobu.” Nadiya says the name like a needle piercing skin.

Shinobu stared at her, unflinching, but the corners of her familiar mouth tipped downward. “I want to hear more from the person who knew me best. I know you were important to me.”

Nadiya was drowning. They had been a hair’s breadth away from safety. From peace. From being _together_ , responsibilities be damned, but Shinobu just had to –

“I don’t know you anymore,” Nadiya told her, and she walked away.

 

There were as many similarities as there were differences.

Shinobu’s smile was the same. Therin made her laugh more than Nadiya ever had, the damn flirt that he was, but Shinobu didn’t seem to ever return the flirting. Just as well; Therin’s charm won’t allow any follow-through, and Nadiya didn’t know why she paid so much attention, anyway. She tried not to. She tried and tried.

“She’s gutsy,” Therin noted one day, watching Lee-4 teach Shinobu the workings of a sniper.

Next to Lee-4, Shinobu had her rapt attention focused on the rifle. The back of Nadiya’s neck prickled.

“You think Micah’s allowed her too much?” Therin pressed.

He nudged Nadiya when she made no effort to respond. In the corner of her eye, she saw Therin’s glance linger on her.

“Hey,” Therin said. “You’ve been acting strange lately.”

Nadiya made a sound, low in her throat. He followed her gaze to Shinobu’s back, and then mouthed a small, _ah_.

“You know I don’t mean it,” he said, hesitant now.

“Right.”

Therin stayed quiet a minute, then patted Nadiya lightly on the shoulder, all his weight in his toes just in case he needed to bolt. “I’ve heard romantic tales of amnesiacs falling for their lover all over again,” he supplied helpfully. “Bet there’s all sorts of Golden Age literature on it. Want me to dig some up for you? Give you some tips?”

Nadiya shoved him back and stalked away.

She didn’t see Shinobu turn her head to watch after her.

 

One moment and Nadiya was lying on the ground, looking a Fallen in the face, a second off from being shot through the chest. She was close enough that she could hear the coils firing up in the weapon. She was empty-handed and bleeding from too many places to do a damn thing about it.

She wasn’t scared, facing her death with an angry snarl and eyes wide open – and her eyes, wide open, was how she saw Shinobu come flying into view to slam the butt of her gun into the Fallen’s head.

When the Fallen’s rifle fired, it shot off into the sky, singing a corner of Nadiya’s cloak. The Fallen dropped to the ground.

Shinobu looked at her, chest heaving. Nadiya’s vision blurred.

“Nadiya?” Shinobu asked, hesitant.

Nadiya pushed herself to her feet again, fury in her veins. She grabbed Shinobu by the chin, turning her this way and that.

“You’re not wearing a helmet,” Nadiya said angrily, gritting her chattering teeth. “Put a fucking helmet on.”

She released Shinobu just to have her Ghost transmat an extra helmet to her, then shoved that into Shinobu’s arms.

“Keep it,” Nadiya said, tension sharp on her tongue. “You’re not invincible.”

“Isn’t that the point?” Shinobu undid the clasps of the helmet.

Nadiya could feel her shields coming back up, armor slowly piecing together again, bloodied skin repairing itself. She shouldn’t be so angry over this. She shouldn’t be so caught by the idea of Shinobu risking herself for her, when it didn’t matter now. Shinobu was fine. She’d always be fine.

“Don’t be stupid,” Nadiya told her, walking away, stepping over countless House of Kings corpses on her way back to Coyote.

 

Shinobu thought, that if they were anything once, it was this –

It was Nadiya’s face going from stern to still under her gentle fingers. It was the way Shinobu’s skin warmed when Nadiya’s hands gripped her a little tighter at her waist. It was the series of sudden, fleeting impulses to kiss and feel and run away, else her heart would flee without her.

Some things had to be constant, Shinobu felt. Like gravity. Like oxygen.

Like the skip of her fluttering pulse under Nadiya’s palm and the wordless sound parting her lips as Nadiya dared to move her how she liked.

It’d been long enough now. Long enough that Nadiya didn’t look at her like she was the wrong person. Long enough that Nadiya would smile at her again. Rare, sure, but Shinobu liked every one of the lopsided smirks she managed to pull out of her.

“You’re caught up in your head tonight,” Nadiya murmured at her ear.

“Just thinking,” Shinobu assured her, running a petting touch down Nadiya’s back and feeling her arch to meet her fingertips.

“Think later,” Nadiya said against her throat, hand dipping between Shinobu’s legs.

And this, as ever, was a moment to remember.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.


End file.
